Today's Headlines and Commentary

During ongoing Taliban peace talks in Qatar, American negotiators met with a Taliban delegation that included the group’s deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the highest-level Taliban representative to join the negotiations, the New York Times reports.

A Trump Organization attorney requested that the House Judiciary Committee stop investigating the business on the grounds that the committee’s hiring of a lawyer whose firm has represented the Trump Organization represents a conflict of interest, according to the Washington Post.

A judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas ruled that the Selective Service System’s male-only registration requirement is unconstitutional, CNN details.

Vice President Mike Pence announced new sanctions targeting senior Venezuelan officials aligned with embattled President Nicolás Maduro, the Times reports.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif resigned in an Instagram post on Monday, apologizing for “shortcomings” during his tenure, according to Reuters.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team filed a sentencing memorandum in the case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, taking no position on the sentence itself, according to NPR. Lawfare posted the documents.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said that if Attorney General Bill Barr does not publicly release Mueller’s final report, his committee will subpoena the report from the Justice Department and ask Mueller to testify before Congress, NBC reports.

ICYMI: Over the Weekend on Lawfare

Lev Sugarman shared an order in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denying Guantanamo detainee Abdul Razak Ali’s petition for an initial hearing en banc.

Mikhaila Fogel posted a brief filed by Solicitor General Noel Francisco in In Re Grand Jury Subpoena arguing for a Supreme Court denial of the anonymous corporation’s petition for a writ of certiorari.

Jen Patja Howell shared an episode of the Lawfare Podcast featuring a conversation between Benjamin Wittes and Bastian Giegerich of the International Institute for Strategic Studies on its 2019 Military Balance report.

Quinta Jurecic posted the special counsel’s office sentencing memorandum and attached exhibits filed in Paul Manafort’s case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Jason M. Blazakis examined the February bombing in Indian-administered Kashmir and U.S. policy options for responding.

Sarah Grant analyzed Friday’s federal court ruling that declared the male-only military draft system unconstitutional.

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